Light is so essential, that unless peaches be trained near the glass, the fruit will neither acquire due colour nor flavour. Vicissitudes of dryness and moisture must be avoided. The roots should be well supplied with water before the fruit begins to ripen off, because at a later period none can be applied without deteriorating the flavour.
The management of the peach-tree can only be correctly understood by those who are aware of the disposition of its buds and its mode of bearing. The leaves on the shoots, of the current season are produced either singly, in pairs, or in threes from the same node. In the course of the summer, or early part of autumn, a bud is formed in the axil of every individual leaf, and these are termed single, double, or triple eyes, or buds, according as one or more are produced at each node. In the following season, these buds develops themselves either as flower. buds or young shoots', and previously to pruning it is necessary to .listinguish the one description from the other. The flower-buds are plump and roundish ; the wood-buda are more oblong and pointed, and one of these is generally situated between flower-buds in the case of triple buds occurring at the same node. It is therefore expedient, in pruning, to shorten a shoot to these triple eyes if possible, or, in their absence, to • loaf-bud, but never to a fruit-bud only, for no shoot could be prolonged from it, nor would the fruit attain perfection, owing to the want of leaves in immediate connection with its foot stalk. In selecting buds for the purpose of propagation, single wood-buds only should be chosen. • The modo of bearing is solely on shoots of the preceding summer's growth.
The poach is propagated almost exclusively by budding ; but occa sionally splice-grafting is adopted. The peach stock is rarely used, but frequently the almond, especially in }ranee. In this country, how ever, it ie propagated almost entirely on the plum stock, which is not only much hardier, but also possesses the property of spreading its roots nearer the surfaco than either of the two preceding kinds, thereby affording to the peach • more congenial nourishment, in consequence of the roots being within the influence of the solar heat. Whereas the peach stock tends to strike downwards strong tap-like roots beyond the depth of the stratum warmed by the summer-heat ; and although the latter trees grow vigorously for • few years, or so long as the roots hays not penetrated too deep, yet they afterwards become sickly, their foliage becomes narrow, and acquires a yellowish colour, and the trees ultimately perish. The mussel and 'Aire pear-plums are the varieties of plum stocks on which the peach is budded ; the latter is esteemed the boat. The French prefer the St. Julien plum stock, which answers exceedingly well. In order to obtain varieties, the seed is used, and when the plant is sufficiently advanced it is grafted.
The peach succeeds in any rich fresh loamy soil ; but the subsoil, like that for all fruit-trees, ought not to be retentive, and a very com plete mode of drainage is absolutely necessary. It would also be desirable that the roots should not be allowed to penetrate deeper than two feet from the surface, which ie to be effected by judicious roots pruning. No objections could be made against the roots following
their natural tendency downwards to whatever distance they might go, if their extremities were at the same time in a medium congenial to the peach as regards temperature ; but this cannot be the case in Britain, unless perhaps some chalk subsoils may form exceptions. The soil, especially if the situation is cold and damp, can hardly be too shallow when it rests on a hard subsoil; on gravel it need not exceed 14 inches in depth, but may be deeper in warm and dry situations. The best remedy for mildew is, to take up the tree carefully in autumn, renew the soil, and replant the tree, spreading the roots near the surface.
Various modes of training the peach have been adopted, with different degrees of success. That of course has proved the best which admits, of the most equal distribution of sap throughout the respective branches, and likewise time production of a sufficient number of well placed shoots for replacing those that have once borne fruit, the shoots being only useful for such purpose in the season immediately following that in which they are produced. The fan method, and a modification of it called Seymour's training, are most in conformity with the above principles. A common error in time fan method is that of disposing a few of the first produced branches so as to represent equidistant radii ; the consequences of such disposition are an excessive degree of vigour in the central and most upright ; but at the same time those inclining horizontally become comparatively weak, linger for a few years, and then die off. Their share of the sap is soon appropriated by the more vertical branches, some of which will assume the character of stems, and prove unsuitable for producing fruit-beariug shoots. Cutting these back is frequently the only alternative in order to obtain other shoots for the purpose of furnishing the lower part of the wall. By this misdirection of the energies of the tree, several years' growth is wasted; and when it becomes necessary to cut out such large branches, the tree receives a shock which renders it incapable of bearing such fine fruit as a more skilful management will ensure. It may be briefly affirmed that all methods of training are bad which admit upright shoots to compete with horizontal ones ; for the former will grow with a vigour ten times greater, in many instances, than the latter, owing to the strong vertical tendency of the sap. Although the ascendancy gained by a vertical shoot over a horizontal one is considerable in the current season of their production, yet it bears but a trifling ratio to that which would be gained in successive seasons, were the vertical portion allowed to proceed without interference from the pruning knife. If, however, a central vertical shoot be annually trained, and uniformly cut at the winter pruning to within a few buds from its base, no material injury would then result to the side branches, the vertical tendency against them being thus limited to a single summer shoot. This principle is the basis of the following mode of training.